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New Dress Code Takes Shape

LONDON— Dressing down is dead. Welcome to the third way of business attire. With dot-boom turned to dot-bust, the deregulated business uniform of chinos and sports shirts has lost its appeal, and men are frantically looking for a new set of rules to help them dress appropriately for their business dealings.

A wholesale return to the suit and tie looks less likely than a Muhammad Ali comeback fight: bankers and accountants have fought hard to shed their double-breasted armor, formal dress can never be the same again.

But the basic suit provides too good a base for a wardrobe to be chucked out completely. The Savile Row tailor Gieves & Hawkes claims its sales of suits are "rocking" as young executives rebel against the casual rebellion.

The firm's creative director James Whishaw says the suit is much more adaptable than it has been given credit for. "Dressing down should never have been an excuse to dress cheaply or be less well-groomed than you would be in a suit. Our clients are looking for flexible suits that can be worn much more as separates. They want flat-front trousers instead of pleated and single-breasted jackets so that they can wear them with jeans."

Timothy Everest, a tailor, who is also creative director of the luxury Daks label, says that the future of dressing is much more about separates and mix-and-match. "There is a need to address formality in a new way, to dress up but in a casual style. It's about being able to mix — tailored pants and jacket give the foundation. If you're going to wear jeans and a T-shirt, make sure it's a bloody good T-shirt." He cites the "American abroad" style of Jude Law in "The Talented Mr. Ripley" as a good interpretation of the look.

Everest anticipates the return of such classics as the blazer and the sports jacket to lend a tailored structure to an otherwise casual outfit. "Accessories will become more important: belts, cufflinks, shoes, where your watch is from. All the little things that can transform an outfit," he adds.

Already a new standard for business attire is emerging among the more naturally stylish, picking up elements from the old world and the new to create a uniform of prescient adaptability.

Jethro Marshall, a London-based marketing consultant, says: "People who rely on networking for their industries are constantly dressed for 'work.' This is especially true of male media types who wear a relaxed dark-colored smart suit from someone like Prada or Paul Smith with a tight synthetic T-shirt and excessive grooming. They're happy in that at 10 a.m. or 10 p.m."

Sarah Churchman handles company culture issues at the London consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers, which introduced a "Continental dress" rule — essentially a blazer, open shirt and slacks style — two years ago. "There's always this hassle of 'What if?' What if the client wants a meeting on a day you're dressed casually? The net effect is that people find it easier to wear a suit. But they've started buying more casual-looking suits."

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"One rule should be that your outward appearance shouldn't be different from the culture you operate in," adds Gehan Talwatte, who is bringing the business information service Hoover's Online into Europe. "What you wear should not detract from the message you're trying to deliver."

Bankers are not renowned for their grasp of fashion issues. Business leaders in the financial world are still dressing down to show off their modernity and apparent individuality, while the Internet entrepreneurs who midwifed the casual shift in the late '90s have started slipping back into suits. New media gurus like Steve Jobs, co-founder and chairman of Apple Computer, and Tim Koogle, the former chief executive of Yahoo Inc., are two of the higher profile figures who have traded in their casual duds for suits and ties.

Judith Hardy, head of human resources at the accounting firm Arthur Anderson in London, says: "We introduced a business casual dress code last year, along with initiatives like flexible working hours. The men tend to wear polo neck or open neck shirts with a sports jacket or blazer and chinos or smart casual trousers. But we don't have a dress code. We don't want to be prescriptive." The subtext is: People who handle millions of dollars shouldn't be told what to wear.

But in some cases, maybe they need to be. "It's backfiring," says Adam Sodowick, co-founder of the dot-com conference organizer First Tuesday. "I went to see these lawyers in London and nearly went into shock. You do not want to see a whole building of English lawyers dressed down."

As Talwatte says: "If you're trying to raise millions of dollars, it's not good to turn up in a ratty T-shirt and jeans. It may have worked at one time because it was novel. But the novelty's worn off."

"Grey hair and a tie are now seen as positive things in our sector; T-shirt and rectangular glasses are not," says Sodowick. As the dot-com dream began to fade, more and more First Tuesday delegates started appearing in suits.

Dressing down is not the same as dressing individually. And rebelliousness is not a quality most people look for in a banker or lawyer. Supplanting one uniform, the suit, with another, chinos and polo shirt, is not the mark of success most business graduates dreamed of when growing up in the powerhouse '80s.

The style commentator Peter York says: "There is great unclarity about what is appropriate officewear. People have adopted a safety uniform of chinos, polo shirts and dark shoes. It couldn't be drabber. Given an ostensible freedom, they've huddled together in a uniform way. Eventually, we will think of this as hilarious."